In the News …

The Story of Stuff Is Now A Book …

The author, Annie Leonard, says the book has all the information from the movie, plus much more detail about the stages of the materials economy – extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal; more facts and examples from all over the world.

The Organic Consumers Association, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and the Green Patriot Working Group announced the details of an agreement from Procter and Gamble to reformulate 18 products from its top-selling Herbal Essences brand to reduce levels of the carcinogenic petrochemical 1,4-Dioxane.

In addition, OCA and allies will announce new results from a continuing study that has tested over 150 consumer products for the toxic chemical. T

his year, 20 laundry detergents were tested, including major “natural” and conventional brands. Ironically, the seven laundry detergent brands from P&G had by far the highest levels of 1,4-dioxane overall.

Did you know that despite endless aisles of food in the grocery store, just a handful of companies decide what kind of food you can buy and how farmers can produce it? It’s true. Decades of bad farm policy and unchecked corporate mergers have driven out independent players, creating powerful agribusiness giants who control much of what ends up on our plate.

Consumers are fed up with a broken food system that makes us sick, harms the environment and promotes factory farms.

After decades of government officials looking the other way, regulators are finally acknowledging there might be a problem.

How bad are things right now?

Four companies process more than 85% of U.S. beef cattle.

Two companies sell 50% of U.S. corn seed.

One company controls 40% of the U.S.milk supply.

Five firms dominate the grocery sector, ensuring that low prices paid to farmers aren’t passed along to consumers at the store.

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New Drug-Resistant Bacteria Emerging in Hospitals

A new “superbug” called Acinetobacter is causing severe bloodstream infection and pneumonia in many hospital patients

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China Says It Is Moving to Enforce Greenhouse Gas Goals

The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress said it will spell out greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions goals and monitoring rules for regions and sectors in its next five-year plan. In November 2009 the Chinese government said it would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted to make each unit of national income 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

That goal would let China’s GHG emissions keep rising, but more slowly than its economic growth. The more recent comments provided some clarity as to how the reductions will be achieved. Officials said they will carry out an “inventory” of GHG emissions in 2005 and 2008, using that as a yardstick for setting emissions reductions goals across areas and sectors.

The government would also launch a series of technological and fiscal support policies to promote the use of non-fossil, renewable energies including wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and nuclear power, aiming to increase its proportion of primary energy consumption to about 15 percent by 2020, up from 9.9 percent at the end of 2009.

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Wal-Mart Pledges to Reduce Carbon Emissions by 2015

Wal-Mart announced that it would cut some 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015. The company said that the reductions are equivalent to taking 3.8 million cars off the road for a year.

Wal-Mart plans to achieve emissions reductions by focusing on popular product categories with the highest embedded carbon – milk, bread, meat, clothing – and pressing its suppliers to rethink how they source, manufacture, package and transport those goods. Michael T. Duke, Wal-Mart’s president and chief executive, said in a webcast, “We know we need to get ready for a world in which energy will only be more expensive. “